


Dinners between Partners

by TVgirll1971



Category: Whiskey Cavalier (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, F/M, Post 1.12 "Two of a Kind" Pre 1.13 "Czech Mate"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:09:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21571333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TVgirll1971/pseuds/TVgirll1971
Summary: After some advice from Kelly, Frankie asks Will to have a friendly dinner with her. Thus begins a tradition. The more time Frankie spends with Will though, the more she can't stop thinking about him.
Relationships: Will Chase/Frankie Trowbridge
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Dinners between Partners

**Author's Note:**

> This story was based a prompt from @Kirsten12467821. Further inspiration derived from a Twitter conversation that included @LadyVirtchh @ASoloCello & @Smpritch87

They sat in silence on the trip back from Connecticut because that’s how Frankie liked it. She didn’t like inane chit chat. She liked to be alone with her thoughts. And right now her thoughts were of this last mission, especially Kelly. She thought she knew Kelly. The Kelly she remembered was closed off, more concerned with her career than having a social life. But this Kelly—the one who let her guard down, fell in love and had a child. It was hard for Frankie to wrap her head around. Even more confusing was, given how Daniel had betrayed her, Kelly didn’t seem to regret letting him into her heart. The marriage was over sure, but, according to Kelly, it hadn’t soured her on love. 

“It was the best thing that ever happened to me.” That’s what she said. Frankie knew why Kelly told her that—it was a suggestion for Frankie to open up her own heart. The truth was Frankie had already done that to a degree. She had frequent girl nights with Susan, she’d trained Standish, she’d even come to accept Ray as part of the team. Then there was Will. The man was dorky as hell but he was so unlike anyone she’d ever met. He wore his heart way too much on his sleeve, yet at the same time he was so charming. Plus add the fact that he was a kick ass agent---practically as good as she was. Yep, she had never met anyone like him before.

“Well, we’re back in New York.” Will announced, breaking the silence. “Guess it’s time to go home.” 

“Why don’t we get something to eat first?” Frankie said.

“What?” he asked, surprised. “You actually want to go out to eat? Together?”

“It’s not a big deal, Will. It’s late, neither one of us has eaten since lunch. We might as well get a bite.”

“Okay, well there’s an Italian place nearby. Or do you want something faster?”

Frankie thought about it. Any other time, she would’ve been in a hurry to get home. But this was different. “No, Italian’s good.”

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A few days, later, Frankie’s phone rang. 

“An hour and a half, Frankie. That meeting lasted a whole hour and a half!”

Frankie knew what Will was talking about. Since Ray was busy going over the team’s expenses with a government auditor, Will was forced to attend a staff meeting on his behalf. 

“And you’re telling me because? Why not call Ray?”

“Because Ray has his phone off.” Will answered, clearly upset. “I’d call Susan but one of her sisters is visiting so I don’t want to bother her.”

“So, you bother me.” Frankie said, more amused than annoyed.

As a field agent, Will hadn’t sat in on many staff meetings, apparent in his tirade to Frankie. The point of the meeting was to provide information pertinent to their next mission. It should’ve been simple. Instead, it was filled with people unable to answer questions without it turning into a whole debate. “It was basically people talking in circles.” Will complained.

“I don’t get it. Ray doesn’t seem to have this problem.” Frankie said.

“No, because Ray doesn’t ask any questions! He just sits there and listens to everything.”

Frankie suddenly understood. “Oh, I get it. You’re the reason it went so long.”

“I am not the reason…” Will started to argue. “Never mind. Listen, do you mind coming to my place later to help me iron this out? Because frankly I’m not happy with what they came up with.” 

Later, Frankie arrived at Will’s with take out. Though Will said he didn’t care what kind of food she brought, she figured after the day he had, he could use some comfort food and brought fried chicken and mac & cheese. After an hour going over the mission details, the pair came up with a plan they were both happy with. Noticing how tense Will was, Frankie suggested that they watch a movie together—his choice.

“Really?” Will asked, surprised.

“Sure.” She answered, shrugging. 

Will went over to his DVD collection. Normally, he liked watching rom coms, but since Frankie had been so thoughtful, he wanted to pick something they’d both enjoy. “Oooh, I have it.” He said smiling. “Field of Dreams.”

Frankie was surprised. She expected another movie like You’ve Got Mail, not a sports movie. It didn’t take long for her to realize it wasn’t a typical sports movie. “Figures Will would like sappy sports movies.” But she did say it was his choice and he really did seem to like it. “Next time, I‘m showing him an action movie.” She thought to herself.

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After a successful end to the mission, Frankie was surprised when Will asked her if she wanted to have a little celebratory dinner at his place. They didn’t do that. They’d been partners for close to a year and it wasn’t something they did.

Seemingly reading her mind, Will said, “I know it’s not something we normally do. But the last two dinners we had together went pretty well so why not start a new tradition?”

Realizing he did have a point, Frankie agreed and went to his place with Mexican takeout. During another relaxing dinner, Will surprised Frankie again.

“So, this Ray and Susan thing. Did it start in Berlin?”

“What?” Frankie asked, almost choking on her wine.

Will smirked. “Come on. Those looks they’ve been giving each other? Or how one always seems to arrive or leave right after the other? They’re not exactly subtle.”

Frankie smiled. “True, they are pretty obvious. You’ve known this whole time? You aren’t mad?”

Will shook his head. “No. They both seem happy. As for how long I’ve known, well, I kind of thought Susan had someone in her bed at the hotel in Berlin, but I didn’t really put a lot of thought into it at the time.”

“Are you going to tell them you know?”

Will smiled. “Nah, let them keep their secret. Susan will tell me she’s ready.”

Frankie smiled to herself. That is so not how she expected Will to react. All those weeks she spent worrying, and he was okay with it! Though it really shouldn’t have surprised her. After all, Will was a nice guy. Of course, he’d be okay with it. 

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The following week, Frankie and Will were at his place on a conference call with Interpol agent Paul Wesley, whom they worked with in France several months earlier. The current mission required someone to infiltrate the Trust as a double agent. Since Will knew Ollerman wouldn’t believe anyone on the team had turned, he suggested Paul. After all, not only did Paul have undercover experience, but his career had floundered since the debacle of him falling in love with his mark, which meant that he was believable as a disgruntled agent. When the conference call ended, Will suggested they order pizza. “Four dinners in less than a month.” Frankie thought to herself. “This is becoming a tradition.” As they talked, they decided that instead of going to the airport separately, Frankie might as well come to Will’s place first so they could leave together. 

The next day, Frankie hung around her place, bored. She was already packed and it was too early to go to Will’s. Suddenly, she thought about all those dinners she and Will had had recently. She realized that she liked hanging out with him. He’d always been easy to be around, but she found that, the more time she spent with him, the more she liked it. He was so safe and dependable but not in a boring way. Sure, he was dorky but then he had this confidence that perfectly offset the dorkiness and made it endearing. After what seemed like an eternity thinking about Will, Frankie finally groaned, rolled her eyes and got up to go. After all, if she was going to be bored, she might as well be bored at his place.

Later, Will was surprised when Frankie showed up at his place earlier than expected. Looking at his watch, he said, “I didn’t expect you to come for at least an hour. I’m not even packed.”

“I know but I figured I was done so why wait?”

“Guess so. Well, I’m going to finish packing. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen.”

Waiting for Will to finish packing, a bored Frankie saw the cabinet where Will kept his liquor and got an idea.

“Hey, you know that trick you do sometimes? Flipping the coin into the glass of whiskey? You think you could show me how to do that?”

Will smiled broadly. “Wow. Look at you. Wanting to learn parlor tricks.”

“Never mind.” Frankie said, slightly embarrassed.

“No. No. No. Come on.”

So, there she was, in the kitchen having Will teach her his little trick. Early in their partnership, Frankie would’ve scoffed at this. They were partners, nothing more. But now with him leaning over her, trying to teach her, she realized she wasn’t uncomfortable at all. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. 

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Days later, on her way to Will’s to go over high value target assessments to determine what the Trust was planning. Frankie’s mind went back to their recent mission to the Alps. Frankie remembered how cold it was there, though it wasn’t so bad since Will put a pair of his thermal underwear in her bag before they left. Though she’d never admit it to him that was a very thoughtful thing for him to do. But that’s the kind of guy Will was. He anticipated her needs before she did. Plus, she had to admit, he was a better packer. She just threw things in her bag, whereas Will had a method. Where she just put her spare pistol on top of everything else she brought, it was Will who moved it to the side pocket so that it wouldn’t get tossed around during transit. 

Frankie didn’t know why she kept thinking about Will. They were partners, that’s how it should stay for the sake of the team. However, she couldn’t stop thinking about the things Kelly said—about Will being Frankie’s type and about opening herself up to love. She also couldn’t get Susan’s words out of her head—that sometimes it’s not up to her, sometimes it’s up to Fate. Fate. She wasn’t quite sure if she believed in that or not. She’d have to ask Will what he thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Paul, from Mr. & Mrs. Trowbridge & the finale, Czech Mate, had no last name in the credits so I gave him one. [I just found out today there is an actor named Paul Wesley who worked with Lauren Cohan (on The Vampire Diaries). That was so not intentional. However, if we can have a character named Will Chase, we can have a Paul Wesley.
> 
> Will having to sub for Ray at a staff meeting came to me in early June (after I sat through a 1 1/2 hour staff meeting). My original idea then was Will taking over for Ray at the start of Season 2 while Ray was in recovery. 
> 
> The conversation regarding Ray & Susan was taken from a twitter conversation between myself, @Smpritch87 & @LadyVirtchh. The line "let them keep their secret" was lifted from that conversation (credit for the line goes to @Smpritch87) She also provided the idea that Will must've realized Susan had someone in her bed in Berlin (though I do think he was too much in his head at the time to think about it)
> 
> The idea of the weekly dinner tradition came from What Comes After by Huntress87


End file.
